Curse of the DNA register
Despite being a small island of just under 60 million people, Britain has always punched above her weight internationally, although most Brits are feeling distinctly uneasy about her latest bout of record breaking.
Britain now has the largest DNA database in the world, including one million people who have never been found guilty of any offence, 100,000 of whom are children.
Recent research, funded by the Home Office among members of the public, has revealed that there is widespread hostility to the holding of people's DNA and the fear that a generation of Brits are being treated as if they were criminals, despite the fact that they have never committed any offence.
The Human Genetics Commission found there was widespread mistrust among people presented with evidence of the size of the database, which now contains the genetic records of more than four million people. It called for the database to be taken out of the control of the Home Office and police altogether, with one panel member warning that the database was a "first step towards a totalitarian state".
Research reveals that the public apparently suffer no disquiet over criminals having their DNA stored, but object to the DNA of people who have not been charged with any offence being kept on record.About 40 per cent of young black men have been forced to provide samples, compared with 13 per cent of Asian men and 9 per cent of white men.
Genetic material is now taken from all people arrested by police, regardless of whether they are subsequently charged or convicted, and remains on file for life.
Offences covered include begging, being drunk and disorderly, taking part in an illegal demonstration and minor acts of criminal damage caused by children kicking footballs or, in one instance, throwing a snowball.
And the public appears to feel that the length of time the DNA of people who have been found guilty of offences should be stored must in some way be commensurate with the crime they have committed.
The usual government argument in such cases is that if you have nothing to hide then you should have nothing to fear. I am always secretly pleased when the public reveal that they are slightly more sceptical than the government or the police would like us to be in such matters.Detailed consultation on the database by the commission, the Government's genetic watchdog, found the public believed samples provided by the innocent should be destroyed and those of people convicted of lesser offences removed after a few years.
The damning verdict was delivered by panels in Birmingham and Glasgow. After studying evidence about the database they called for an array of reforms designed to reassure the public that it would not be abused. They concluded that the records of children convicted of minor offences should be removed after a short period. Warning that adults are "criminalised" by having their DNA permanently on record, the panels said the length of time it stays on the database should be proportionate to their offence. "Currently no distinction is made between someone who has been arrested for breach of the peace and someone who has murdered somebody," the commission's report noted.
David Howarth, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: "There must be better ways of catching criminals than spending millions of pounds of taxpayers' money adding innocent people to the DNA database. Public confidence has been shattered by the Government's Orwellian attempts to create a national DNA database by stealth."
Dominic Grieve, the shadow Home Secretary, said: "The Government should take heed of these findings. Currently the DNA database targets the innocent but not all the guilty."
And Howarth makes a very good point. If the government thought that we were all in agreement with such a scheme, then they would not have to construct their DNA database with such stealth.
Britain has already become a "surveillance society" according to a recent report, which noted that we have one surveillance camera for every fourteen of our citizens, making us "the most surveilled country" in the world. And reports also show that this increased surveillance has not made us more safe. Indeed, there is no correlation between surveillance and safety:
Statistics show that CCTV does not reduce crime. A 2005 Home Office study concluded that "most CCTV systems do not cut crime or make people feel safer. Of 14 closed circuit television camera schemes examined by criminologists, only one - for car parks - was shown to reduce offences."The DNA database is yet another infringement into the privacy of innocent Brits.
And this report states quite clearly that there is "widespread mistrust" amongst the public about the government or the police having such details on file.
It would make crime solving much easier if were we all to offer our fingerprints and our DNA to the police to be kept on file, but this report suggests that many of us are unwilling to take that risk and that we value our privacy more than we fear being the victim of crime.
This appears to undermine the belief, shared by Blair and New Labour, that we will willingly give up our privacy in order for our government to protect us.
We are not quite as risk averse a nation as they have presumed.
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